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I have some great news for ExpressVPN users to start off the new year.

Hong Kong 3 is back.

If you have been following the previous year's VPN in China blog pages, then you will know that ExpressVPN Hong Kong 3 is the best VPN server available anywhere. Hosted on Rackspace Hong Kong special China Telecom CN2 lines, this server is fast as lightning 24 hours a day. Even during the peak bandwidth congestion at 11pm. Not only does this server have CN2 routing for China Telecom, it is also directly connected to China Unicom and China Mobile.

Although ExpressVPN did a great job keeping their VPN service working in China during the great VPN crackdown of 2017, Hong Kong 3 was not one of the servers that was kept online during this time.

Hong Kong 1 has stealth CN2 routing, but the speed is limited to 10Mbps. It's a good alternative if Hong Kong 3 is not working. You still get the same low latency and low packet loss, but with a slightly slower download speed.

Hong Kong Kowloon is my favorite VPN server to use in China for VPN.ac. Although it lacks the China Telecom CN2 routing like ExpressVPN Hong Kong 3 and Hong Kong 1, it still performs very well most of the time. However, it will slow down sometimes especially during peak night time hours.

Finally, here is a test from NordVPN using the third party open-source OpenVPN GUI app. I prefer to use the manual OpenVPN configurations with NordVPN because the Windows app does not work good on my computer (possible conflict with other VPN apps).

I'm currently travelling outside of China, but I left a computer running at home, which I can access remotely. These tests were done from my China Telecom 100/20M Fibre home internet connection on an old Windows 7 computer.

Someone told me that ExpressVPN Hong Kong 3 is no longer working in China. That appears to be the case, as I was unable to make a connection to Hong Kong 3. This is unfortunate, but not too surprising. China is really cracking down hard on VPNs these days.

Here are the best working ExpressVPN servers to use in China right now.

Although Hong Kong 1 is limited to 10Mbps download speed, the stealth-CN2 China routing will always give you ultra low latency and packet loss (even during peak bandwidth hours at night). Use this server if you need reliable connection for gaming, web browsing, or video streaming (up to 1080p).

If you're torrenting or downloading large files, you might need something with higher download speed.

Normally I would test VPN.ac now, but my subscription just expired. I'm going to wait until I get back to China in a few weeks before I renew it, so check back soon for some VPN.ac speed test results.

VyprVPN has been having major issues in China lately, but someone told me that it was working again.

It certainly is not working for me. I downloaded the latest app for Windows, and tried several server locations and protocols (including Chameleon). But I was unable to get a single successful connection.

If anyone is able to get a successful connection with VyprVPN in China right now, please leave a comment below and tell me how you did it!

If you want to try for yourself, you can always get a free 3 day trial. However, you will need to sign up for it using another VPN if you are in China. All of their domains (including the ones normally accessible form China) seem to be blocked.

The last time I tested NordVPN, I wasn't able to connect using the standard OpenVPN config files (which is my preferred way to connect to NordVPN). Today I had to install the latest NordVPN app for Windows to test the "obfuscated" servers.

NordVPN seems to be working relatively well with the obfuscated servers.

The NordVPN Hong Kong obfuscated servers are hosted on Leaseweb, which does not have direct peering with China Telecom, hence the very high latency. However, it does have direct peering with China Unicom if I recall correctly. I will be sure to test this one again using my China Unicom data connection when I get back to China.

The Japan #135 server seems to be the best NordVPN to use with China Telecom right now.

Of course, none of the NordVPN servers have good latency to China Telecom like the ExpressVPN Hong Kong servers, but the performance is pretty good for the price.

NordVPN is still offering the 3 year special for $107.55, that works out to only $2.99/month. It's hard to beat that price for any VPN, never mind one that works in China.

Unfortunately, NordVPN has recently stopped accepting PayPal payments for VPN subscriptions. This will make things more difficult for foreigners in China. Alipay and WeChat require a Chinese ID card to make payments to overseas merchants, so that only leaves UnionPay (Chinese bank card) and credit cards as payment options.

I can only test using China Telecom on Windows (via remote access) because I'm not in China right now. Some servers might be working with different combinations of ISPs and operating systems. For example, my friend told me that Los Angeles 2 is working on his iPhone.

This is the second time ever since 2016 that I have not been able to get a single working connection using ExpressVPN in China (see update below). The last time was on June 25, 2018. You can read the details on the 2018 blog page. ExpressVPN restored connectivity in China within 24 hours, so I don't expect we will be waiting too long this time either.

This is one of the main advantages of ExpressVPN. Any VPN service can get blocked, but only a really good one will get back online quickly. For example, VyprVPN was completely blocked recently and it was dead for almost a month!

If you are in China and want to try VyprVPN, it will be tricky because there is no China accessible site available right now. So you will need to use another working VPN in order to sign up for the free trial.

Although a proxy lacks the security and full compatibility of a VPN, ShadowsocksR is a very good protocol for China. Although you can rent a VPS and make your own ShadowsocksR server on a VPS, subscribing to WannaFlix is a much better option.

Just a quick note that NordVPN has introduced a new special for China users. The offer is 3 months for the price of 2 months.

To take advantage of this offer, you need to go to NordVPN with your VPN or proxy turned OFF. The offer is only available if you are accessing the NordVPN website with a Chinese IP address.

Unfortunately, the landing page is only in Chinese so I will provide a brief translation here.

Once you choose one of the 2 offers, you can then change the language to English on the order page (at the bottom right of the page).

March 5, 2019 (11:00am China time) - VPNs working in China right now

Today is the first day of the "big meetings" in Beijing. The Great Firewall has really tightened up. Right now I can't get any working connection on ExpressVPN.

I connected successfully to NordVPN, but it seems to be a bad connection because it disconnected my remote connection to my computer in China. So now I'm locked out of my computer and need to wait until someone can go into my apartment and disconnect the NordVPN connection.

Once I get back on my China computer, I will test WannaFlix first because there is no risk of getting locked out when using a proxy instead of a VPN.

March 6, 2019 - Found a working solution for ExpressVPN in China (Windows)

However, once I disconnected and tried to connect to Los Angeles 5 again, it didn't work the second time.

I then decided to go on the ExpressVPN website and ask the live chat support what else I could try. After troubleshooting for some time, I was told to try using an old version of the app. Version 3.626 is meant for Windows XP and older operating system, but it also works on Windows 7 and Windows 10.

I uninstalled the latest version and then installed the old version 3.626, and it works quite well.

This is interesting because none of the Singapore servers have a ping time this low to China Telecom on the newer apps, even during normal times when those servers are working. It appears that some of these servers on the old app are on completely different networks. That would explain why they are still working right now.

I noticed that there are also older versions of the app available for Mac OS, but I'm not sure if you will get the same results as Windows. You can certainly give it a try if you are using Mac and unable to connect to any server using the normal app.

I would like to test more servers with mobile data, but I don't have enough data to spare right now. I need to find that SMS code to sign up for the 1 GB daily data package for 5 yuan. I also wanted to test China Mobile, but it seems that my SIM card has expired. I will have to get another one.

Today I am in Guangxi province using a China Unicom Fibre connection. These tests were done at 11pm on my Android phone connected by WiFi. I'm using the Android apps of ExpressVPN, NordVPN, and VPN.ac.

Here is my speed without VPN.

The China Unicom international bandwidth congestion during peak night time hours is not as bad as China Telecom. So I'm expecting some pretty good results tonight.

I thought I remember this server having better ping time with China Unicom. I guess I was mistaken, or maybe that has changed since I last tested China Unicom. Pretty good download speed for NordVPN though.

There are many more servers, but I don't have time to test all of them.

The best feature of WannaFlix is that most of the servers work for Netflix, as indicated in the server names.

Next up is 12VPN. Unlike WannaFlix, they are using the original version of Shadowsocks instead of ShadowsocksR with better obfuscation options.

The following tests were done using the original Shadowsocks client for Windows. Although 12VPN doesn't offer Shadowsocks instructions for Windows users (they prefer you to use their dedicated app, which I don't like very much), I was able to get the Shadowsocks configurations from their Android setup page.

There is something very strange going on with this server. It is hosted on Aliyun Hong Kong, one of the best hosting providers for China. Normally, I can almost max out my connection speed with this server (close to 100Mbps when I'm at home using China Telecom).

A friend sent me a message on Twitter a few days ago telling me that this server became extremely slow all of the sudden. He asked me to test my personal Aliyun server to see if the problem was with Aliyun or 12VPN.

My personal Aliyun server is working fine, so the problem seems to be with 12VPN. I think they are intentionally throttling the speed on this server.

Here is the reply that my friend got from 12VPN when he inquired about this.

I also sent an email to 12VPN asking about this and their answer to me was "please try CN Optimized 2 (HK) now, it should be working".

Anyway, here are some more 12VPN Shadowsocks tests with some of their other China optimized servers.

This server doesn't work on speedtest.net. I just get a message telling me that my ad-blocker is preventing the speed test from working. This is probably caused by some kind of port blocking or server blocking.

That is one thing that I really don't like about 12VPN. Too much port blocking and traffic shaping.

I think the WannaFlix service is far superior to 12VPN for Shadowsocks. The main advantage of 12VPN is that they offer many other protocols in addition to Shadowsocks, such as WireGuard for example.

Even faster than the control test without a proxy! Aliyun Hong Kong really is the best of the best when it comes to affordable CN2 servers (as long as the speed is not throttled like the 12VPN server).

The only problem with Aliyun is that it's a division of Alibaba, which is a Chinese company. I don't really feel comfortable trusting a Chinese company with my internet connection data.

It appears that Vultr is not very good on China Unicom. At least the Los Angeles location is not very good. This server works much better at home with my China Telecom connection.

James' personal server - Russia (secret location)

Sorry for being so secretive about this one. This is not a well known provider, and I prefer to keep it that way. I have been using this server for years, and it never gets blocked. Probably because it's not on the radar of the GFW due to it's low profile and few users in China.

It's a direct connection from Beijing to Russia on China Telecom and China Unicom, and performs quite well.

If you really want to know the provider, I just lightly blurred out the host information in the image above so you might be able to see it if you stare at it long enough.

That's all for today. I will be going back home tomorrow so check back soon for China Telecom VPN performance testing in China.

Step 2 - While the Windows app is trying to connect, initiate a second connection attempt to Hong Kong 5 using another device other than Windows (Android, iOS, or router).

When you do this, then both devices will connect to Hong Kong 5.

At first I thought this was just a coincidence, but I found this behavior to be repeatable and consistent throughout the whole afternoon today.

When I try to connect to Hong Kong 5 on Windows normally, it will fail every time. If I initiate a connection attempt to Hong Kong 5 on another device while the Windows app is trying to connect, then the Windows app will connection successfully every time.

The other device has to make a new connection, it won't work if it's already connected.

So strange.

Anyway, here is the performance when connected using the above procedure.

Another problem that I noticed with this new version 7 Windows app is that sometimes cancelling a connection attempt does not work. It just keeps trying to connect and won't let me change settings or choose another location until is finishes the connection attempt, which takes up to 5 minutes sometimes.

These new app updates from ExpressVPN have very nice user interfaces and look great, but I find that the basic functionality of the VPN connections are getting worse and worse. I think ExpressVPN needs to spend less resources on the UX and more resources on the basic functionality of these apps.

Something else I find very strange is that my old ExpressVPN router with the standard v1 router app still cannot connect to any server, despite the fact that so many servers are not blocked in China anymore.

I know that there is no problem with that router because it works fine when I plug it into my Shadowsocks router (my current setup for streaming Netflix on my living room TV). But when I plug it into my normal router, not even 1 single server will connect.

VPN.ac seems to be getting slower and slower lately. I don't know if their servers are getting overloaded or what the problem is. The speeds on all of these servers should be much faster at this time of day (morning).

Unlike the connection with China Telecom, the China Mobile connection to Hong Kong 4 is a direct connection from Guangzhou to Hong Kong, which gives a much lower ping (keep in mind that my ping is a little bit higher because I'm using a mobile network).

2 years for under $50 is pretty incredible deal. I don't think I've ever seen prices this good for a VPN that works in China before. It's even cheaper than the NordVPN 3 year deal.

The interesting thing about Surfshark is that they are offering the IKEv2 protocol as the default protocol on all of their apps. IKEv2 works quite well in China, but most VPN providers only offer it on their iOS apps.

So far I have tested the Surfshark apps for Windows, Android, and iOS (I believe the Mac app also offers IKEv2).

The following tests were done using the Surfshark app for Windows with the IKEv2 protocol on my China Telecom 100/20M home Wi-Fi connection.

This Taiwan server is the best one for China Telecom that I could find. The performance is very similar to the Hi-Net servers offered by VPN.ac and ExpressVPN, but the ping time is lower! Only 27ms (I normally get around 50ms from Hi-Net servers).

However, the connection with China Telecom does slow down to around 2Mbps during peak bandwidth hours at night, same as the Hi-Net servers. The main advantage of this server compared to Hi-Net servers is the better latency.

Unfortunately, the Taiwan server is not available on the Surfshark iOS app (server list is limited on the iOS app). However, I was able to connect to it on iOS using the manual OpenVPN config with the OpenVPN Connect app.

Latency is very high, as expected with any server hosted on Leaseweb Hong Kong if you are using China Telecom. I will have to test this one on China Unicom and China Mobile soon to see if it's any better.

I think Surfshark should add a US West Coast server such as Los Angeles for their users in Asia, but overall the results are not too bad. For those of you who like to watch Netflix in China, you will be happy to know that I had no problems streaming Netflix with these US servers.

Overall, here are my first impressions after using Surfshark for a few days.

The good

The price for the 2 year special is really good. $1.99/month is the best priced VPN that works in China that I have ever come across.

30 day money back guarantee.

Apps have a very nice user interface, nice features (such as ad-blocking and split tunneling), and very quick connections (fast connection time with IKEv2).

The connection was successful with all server locations that I tried.

The bad

Price of the monthly plan is expensive, and the 1 year plan is more expensive than the 2 year plan. So the 2 year plan is the only good option.

The Windows app often takes a long time to load. It gets stuck on the splash screen for a few minutes. I have reported this problem to Surfshark and tried a few steps to solve it, but it still happens.

No high performance servers for China. Although there are many servers to choose from, none of them are really high performance.

Limited servers available on the iOS app.

Setting up the manual OpenVPN config files on iOS is not very convenient because you can only download the config files in .zip format, which makes it very difficult to import them into the OpenVPN Connect app. The best way is to download the config files on a computer, unzip them, and then email them to yourself.

Want to try Surfshark for yourself? They are offering a 30 day money back guarantee so you can try it risk-free!

When people ask me why ExpressVPN is the best VPN for China, this is the answer. Although it's more expensive than other VPNs, and the it takes a while to connect sometimes, these premium servers are the best ones you will find anywhere. The difference is especially noticeable with China Telecom after 11pm.

May 9, 2019 - ExpressVPN original router app firmware is working again

ExpressVPN recently released beta versions of their new router app for users in China after the last round of VPN blocks.

Today I tried the original router app firmware again, and it seems to be working again.

I have 1 router with the old router app and 1 router with the new router app.

The speed on both of these routers is limited by the CPU of the router itself (they are both low end routers, the R6300v2 has a slightly better CPU). If you want higher speed, I recommend the Linksys WRT1900ACS or WRT3200ACM.

In additional to Hong Kong 3, I also had no problems connecting to Hong Kong 4 and Hong Kong 5 using the router with the original router app firmware.

In related news, ExpressVPN has now released the new beta router app for all versions of supported routers, so you can use either version no matter which support router you have. I prefer the original version because the new beta version is missing many features such as being able to set the frequency band of the WiFi signals, or set different WiFi passowrds for the 2.4 Ghz and 5Ghz signals.

Are you using ExpressVPN on your router? Which router are you using? Which firmware version? Leave a comment below to share your experience.

May 21, 2019 - Latest China VPN Updates

ExpressVPN has a limit of 3 simultaneous connections (3 devices connected at the same time). However, I currently have 5 devices connected.

2 routers, 2 computers, and 1 Android phone are all connected to ExpressVPN right now.

I can't find any official announcement about this, and the ExpressVPN website still states 3 connections, so I assume this is some kind of bug. Please leave a comment below if you find the same behavior with your account.

11pm VPN speeds with China Telecom

Right now is the peak bandwidth congestion time for international connections from China. But you can still get pretty good performance if you find the right servers.

What's interesting about this Surfshark Taiwan server is that I can only get 2-3 Mbps on speed testing websites at this time of night (also checked on fast.com and dslreports). But I can stream 1080p on YouTube without any problem, and the streaming speed is between 15-20 Mbps. Very strange.

The WannaFlix Hong Kong server started getting slower lately, so WannaFlix added a new one. It's good to know they are committed to always having fast servers for China available and willing to add new ones if necessary.

June 1, 2019 - VPN problems in China

There is an important anniversary coming up in 3 days and the government is cracking down hard on VPNs today.

I am currently on a trip in Shanghai. My hotel WiFi is not very good, so you won't see speed test results to get excited about today.

Here is my speed without a VPN using my hotel WiFi.

I did not have any luck with the latest version of the ExpressVPN app for Windows, so I uninstalled it and installed the old version that is meant for Windows XP/Vista (version 3.626).

If you are an ExpressVPN Windows user and having trouble connecting, I highly suggest that you scroll up and check my blog post from March 6, 2019 on this page.

The old version Windows app has many working servers that connect quickly and reliably.

I can't say for sure that the new version will not work, but all the usual servers I tried didn't connect. I don't really have the patience to try all of them and wait for the extremely long connection attempts. I'm just about ready to go to bed, so I used the solution that I know works.

Although I think it's great that Surfshark has added Shadowsocks to their Windows app, there are a few problems with it.

VPN and Shadowsocks are sharing the same servers. When a server gets IP blocked due to VPN traffic being detected by GFW, Shadowsocks will stop working too. I suggest using separate server infrastructure for the Shadowsocks servers.

If you connect to a blocked server, the app shows it as connected successfully but no traffic will pass through. This is probably a limitation of the Shadowsocks protocol because the standard Shadowsocks app behaves the same way.

The Surfshark app interfers with the standard Shadowsocks app. Even though I exited the Surfshark app, I was unable to use the ShadowsocksR app for Windows (it said the port was already in use). I had to kill the Surfshark process from task manager to solve this problem.

It is still in beta, so maybe some of these problems will solved in a future update. Overall, I'm very impressed with Surfshark for doing this.

Speaking of Shadowsocks, here are few tests for WannaFlix. My favorite servers (the Hong Kong ones) are back in service.

Pretty good speed from Los Angeles 5, especially considering that it is China Telecom peak night time bandwidth congestion hours right now

For Windows, the old version 3.626 is not working for me right now. I can connect to the servers, but the DNS doesn't work, so I can't load any web pages. I'm not sure if it's something with my computer, or a configuration error on ExpressVPN's end. Anyway, I will try the new beta app for Windows tomorrow.

I'm very impressed with this new beta version. ExpressVPN has made some real improvements. Not only are the speeds better than ever, but the connection time is much faster. These servers connected in under 20 seconds instead of the usual 1-5 minutes.

It appears they also fixed a bug where cancelling a connection attempt sometimes didn't work.

ExpressVPN China Status

ExpressVPN is still working well in China, but there are only 5-6 servers that are not blocked. You will also need to make sure you have downloaded the latest updates from the ExpressVPN China Status page.

Although ExpressVPN is the best VPN to use during normal times, their service does seem to take longer than others to recover after VPN crackdowns, such as the recent sensitive anniversary date on the day after June 3.

USA servers are pretty fast, but the latency is a little higher than normal.

Surfshark China Status

I was planning to use the Shadowsocks protocol with Surfshark today, but I kept getting an error message. It's still in beta, so I guess they have some issues to work out. These Surfshark tests were done using the IKEv2 protocol today.

I have some good news to report. The Taiwan server is back online.

Actually, not only Taiwan is working again. All of the Surfshark servers seem to be working now.

The speeds are not great on some of the servers, but at least all of them are working.

Considering that Surfshark is offering the 2 year special for only $47, I can't complain too much about the speeds. Overall, it's working great. This deal comes with a 30 day money back guarantee, so you can try it out yourself without any risk.

WannaFlix China Status

Some WannaFlix servers are still blocked, but most of them are back online.

FYI - The computer I'm using to do these tests seems to be limited to 50Mbps over WiFi. I'm also getting 50Mbps on the China Telecom website test. I will check later if I can update the WiFi driver or something.

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